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36-year old woman and unborn baby killed riding ebike on Pershing Drive in Playa del Rey, where bike lanes removed in 2017 (bikinginla.com)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
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Sadly, that’s exactly where bike lanes were installed in 2017 after a years-long community process, only to be removed following complaints from drivers used to zooming along the street.

It’s impossible to know whether this tragedy could have been prevented if the bike lanes were still there. But their removal will almost certainly mean Los Angeles will be liable for her death.

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[–] 52 points 9 months ago (7 children)

My eye was caught by the wording of "and her unborn baby," which is often used by anti-abortion people to describe a fetus, in order to push their agenda.

Having read the article: The cyclist was 7 months pregnant, and declared DOA when the ambulance arrived at the hospital.

The baby must have been delivered by a post-mortem emergency C-section, because she died in the NICU a couple days later.

So she was a newborn premature baby when she died, but not when the car (and arguably the dangerous infrastructure) killed her mother.

I'll allow it.

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  • [–] 10 points 9 months ago* (2 children)

    My first thought was: "Dang, I wonder what that one night in the NICU is going to ultimately cost the survivors."

    Feels like the most American thing ever to lose one's family to dangerous infrastructure and careless driving and then also be bankrupted by the funeral and medical expenses overnight.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    I wonder; generally speaking, a newborn is covered by their mother's insurance for the first 30 days. But with mom dead... I would think they still are, and this is sadly something that happens often enough there's a standard policy on it.

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